Woman at abortion display: “No one told me it looked like that”
by Kelli
I started to feel uncomfortable about the signs I was standing in front of. So I asked her what she thought.
She started crying. She was angry. “No one told me. No one told me it looked like that,” she said in a broken voice.
She continued, talking faster now: “All the reasons I had to abort—financial, educational, my difficulties with my boyfriend, seemed so logical at the time. No one ever showed me these pictures, or told me what abortion actually did. And now I have to live the rest of my life with the realization that I denied my baby Raven a chance at life. And there is no reason good enough for that.”
And that’s when I came to a realization: Her sin of commission was our sin of omission. In a country filled with Christians, filled with pro-lifers, the only person who had talked to this girl about abortion was an abortionist who took her money and killed her baby.
I realized then what I’ve realized a hundred times since: It doesn’t hurt a post-abortive woman to see a photo of an aborted baby. It only hurts her if she doesn’t see it in time. Like the middle-aged Asian woman who told me she had two abortions, but wouldn’t have had either of them if she’d seen our signs while making the decision. Like the girl in front of a high school who wondered why no one had ever told her what abortion actually did before….
She told me she’d named her aborted child “Raven,” and she had tattooed that name across her stomach just above the place that Raven lived out her short life.
And as I listened, I made up my mind that no girl or woman should ever be denied the truth about abortion. For the child’s sake, and for her sake.
Because we’ve lost too many little Ravens already.
~ Jonathon Van Maren, recalling his first experience as part of a college campus Genocide Awareness Project, The Bridgehead, August 11
[Photo via The Bridgehead]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Amen.
The abortion industry is based on lies of omission.
If I had only known then what I know now. I hear that all the time from my post abortive friends.
Please have abortion recovery materials available for those who may need it when showing the victims of abortion.
I pray to God they have materials to handout about Post-abortion ministries like Rachel’s Vineyard! If they don’t they failed again!!!
So heartbreaking. I am thankful that I don’t live with abortion regret (having never had one), but my heart aches for those who do.
“Like the middle-aged Asian woman”
I know it’s a strange point to focus on, but I can’t help but wonder if there is any particular reason this woman’s race is mentioned. It just seems like an irrelevant detail.
JDC, I don’t think its relevant either, but abortion statistics always include black, white, or Latino (which we know can be any race) but you never hear about the abortion rate among Asian women. I know that abortion rates in some Asian countries like China or Hong Kong are high, but it would be interesting to find out the abortion rate among Asian-American women.
Thankful I saw the photo of an aborted baby when I was a child. So years later when my birth control failed and I conceived, I knew better. Things were scary, my husband wasn’t exactly thrilled, money was tight, living quarters were cramped. But I knew better. I lived blocks from an abortion clinic…but I knew the TRUTH. And my son lives today. Thankful Human Life International took out those graphic ads so that people could begin to see through the lies of the abortion industry.
I saw pictures while researching fetal development to cope with my first miscarriage (the end of my first pregnancy). That’s why I’m prolife.
JDC ~ I know what you mean, and though he may be a bit ineloquent about it, I think he’s humanizing the women by giving out the detail he has about them. The more specific, the more real, the more empathy. In doing so I believe he is also trying to make a subtle point about the demographic range of women affected by abortion.
The author was simply sharing her first impression of the speaker with us. Approximate age, gender, race, quality of dress, the expression on her face. These details make the story come alive for us, even if they are not all relevant to the message.
We are a little flakey, if the mere mention of race spikes our paranoia about racism.
Meanwhile: I just want to mention how much I love the post-abortive women, and how much I admire the courage of those who share their painful stories with us.
I admire all the brave souls that use graphic Images and stand ready to be marginalized and persecuted like the victims who they display. May the Lord raise up many more brave souls like them to fulfill the words of Isaiah in 58:1
There is a quote from John Newton I get a lot of milage from in front of Planned Parenthood. Newton is the Former slaver who became a major voice in the abolition movement and also Author of the Famous Hymn “Amazing Grace” This was in Newton’s diary: “He treated me with utmost contempt and indecency! This is the first time Ive had the honor of being publicly insulted for the Gospel’s sake! Lord! Help me to Deserve it!”